One reason to start with Religious Education at BYU, above all others, is that it is the most lopsidedly male unit in an already lopsidedly male university within a lopsidedly male ecclesiastical power structure. What is the male-female ratio of tenure-track (CFS) faculty? I count 70 total. Of those 70, how many female? 6. Six. (It might be closer to seven of 71 after this year’s round of hiring, and I could be off by one or two in either direction.) Let that sink in. SIXTY FOUR to SIX. NOT EVEN A TITHE OF THE FACULTY ARE WOMEN.

Joe Bishop was in just such a lopsided institutional organization. He was always in a position of power over women. He was always protected and insulated from his consequences by that institution. He wielded his power against his enemies, and there was a distinct gendered component to it even where it was not overtly sexual. Is it possible that other Joe Bishops will be uncovered in an environment that may have an immune system only weakly incentivized by the appropriate moral compass to root out infections of his kind?

So, if I were the Church, in addition to addressing the inherent problems in a severely lopsided gendered leadership, I would take a careful look at Religious Education. I would ask a series of detailed questions and follow up with the full means available. Most of these questions are probably already being asked by the Title IX office. But for hypothetical purposes, I’ll take a stab. This is of course an incomplete list. Continue reading “BYU’s Religious Education: A Ticking Time Bomb in the #metoo Era?”

BYU faculty have been admonished again this week that BYU must be a great university but not after the manner of the worldly universities. This morning’s leaked video of BYU football players who have clearly had too much of their own entitlement to drink brings into sharp focus an area where there is room for immediate improvement. Clearly BYU’s fixation on winning and garnering lucrative ESPN contracts is not producing results that benefit the cause of moral superiority to which it so incongruously aspires. Perhaps BYU would be better off if it were to repent entirely—and in all meekness, thank you Elder Bednar—of its glory-seeking NCAA competition teams.

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We now have more evidence that Bishop was abusing girls in the basement of the MTC than we do that the BoM is an ancient document.